Poor Armando Galarraga. By now, the entire country (and Venezuela) has heard of Armando Galarraga's perfect game. The young man mowed down 26 straight Cleveland batters. Just one agonizing out stood between Galarraga and baseball immortality.
Jason Donald hit a sharp grounder between 1st and 2nd. Cabrera made a play on the ball, fielded it perfectly and whipped a throw to Galarraga covering first. Now, Jason Donald possesses some speed, and he was doing his best to ruin Galarraga's perfect evening. Galarraga and Donald converged on first base. Galarraga caught Cabrera's throw and let out a shout of joy, as did Cabrera. But it was quickly halted when umpire Jim Joyce ruled that Donald was safe. The only person seemingly happy with that call was Jason Donald ("sweet! a single!"). I noticed Cleveland pitcher Jake Westbrook in the background, looking pretty shocked and saddened when the call went down. Galarraga stared at Joyce with a forced smile, as if to say, "Really? You're taking this away from me?" Cabrera was less graceful. He lit into Joyce with a flurry of barbs that lasted throughout the next at-bat, which was, mercifully, an out. The 28th out of the game. For replays proved that Jason Donald was indeed out, and it wasn't that close. Watch for yourself:
Watching from TV, it seemed too close to call. Yet umpires have that precious ability to discern the correct call with split-second accuracy. Umpires are the gold standard in the officiating profession. And they're also human, as was proved by Joyce's gaffe.
As the players left the field, Jim Leyland confronted Jim Joyce and picked up where Cabrera left off. Leyland desperately wanted the perfect game for his boy Galarraga. But the deed was done. Donald was "safe." It will go into the record books as a one-hitter. The saddest one-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball.
The epilogue to this story is that Joyce later called Galarraga into the umpire's room. Joyce had seen the replay. With tears in his eyes, Joyce apologized.
I'm not one bit surprised by this. MLB umpires live by a code of integrity that's shockingly absent from today's sports. They're old fashioned in the best of sense. They take issues of right/wrong to heart. They pride themselves on being the best and hold themselves to that standard. For Joyce to make that glorious gaffe would be more painful to him than Galarraga. As a Tiger fan, I say you're forgiven, Mr. Joyce. Galarraga's night will be somewhat tarnished, but to err is human... even on a perfect night.
what made this night even more heartbreaking was the batter before Donald hit a rocket that looked like it was gonna be a hit, even maybe a homerun. but Jackson, running, running, warning track, almost hitting the wall at full speed caught the ball. IT WAS AMAZING! then you thought, he's gonna do it. HE'S GONNA DO IT!
ReplyDeletetough night.
Great call.
ReplyDeleteThat catch by Jackson was the "Play of the year" as said by Mario Impemba. It was awesome. It seemed destined to happen.